The current disclosure relates generally to refrigerators. More specifically, the current disclosure relates to a water supply apparatus used in a refrigerator for conveying water to an icemaker of the refrigerator, a refrigerator door incorporating the water supply apparatus, and a refrigerator incorporating the door.
Generally, a refrigerator includes a freezer compartment and a fresh food compartment, which are partitioned from each other to store various foods at a low temperature in an appropriate state for a long time. It is now common practice in the art of refrigerators to provide an automatic icemaker to speed up the ice-making operation.
In a “bottom freezer” type refrigerator where the freezer compartment is arranged below a top fresh food compartment, convenience necessitates that the icemaker is disposed in the access door of the top mounted fresh food compartment and delivers ice through an opening in the access door of the fresh food compartment, rather than through the access door of the freezer compartment. In this case, a working medium (i.e., coolant), such as air or a mixture of propylene glycol and water, is cooled, directly or indirectly, by the cooling system. The working medium is then delivered through a passageway to the icemaker to maintain the icemaker at a temperature below the freezing point of water. To further improve consumer convenience, the icemaker has been integrated into the fresh food door of the refrigerator, to which end waterline is run through the fresh food door to supply purified water to the icemaker.
Traditionally, the waterline includes a water tube extending upwardly within the fresh food door. The water tube is typically a ¼ inch diameter waterline entering a fill cup disposed above the icemaker and in fluid communication with the icemaker. One disadvantage of the traditional water supply device is that excessive water splash can be created in the fill cup due to the size of the water tube. Another disadvantage of the traditional water supply device is that sweating on the outer surface of the fresh food door and freezing of the waterline adjacent to the icemaker cannot be effectively prevented. The freezing of the waterline can cause ice build-up in the water tube adjacent to the icemaker, which would in turn blocks water flow to the icemaker. Yet another disadvantage of the traditional water supply device is, when an open pour or so-called “clam-shell” foaming process (which will be described later) is used for forming the door, lining up the water supply with the fill cup can be difficult.
Therefore, a water supply device within the fresh food door of a refrigerator, which effectively prevents the occurrence of the above sweating and freezing as well as water splash and overcomes the difficulties in lining up the water supply with the fill cup, is desired.